Newsom doesn’t really care about democracy, does he?
So much democracy! Gov. Gavin Newsom, who appointed California's secretary of state, attorney general and United States senator due to vacancies following job-hopping, has just appointed his second United States senator following the passing of Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Newly powerful Senator Laphonza Butler has been a lobbyist/advisor, a labor leader, a fundraiser and a partner in a campaign strategy firm with ties to Newsom. Talk about cutting out the middleman. This woman can finance an entire presidential campaign while riding alone in an elevator.
Of course, I say she's a woman, but I'm not a biologist. The governor's office announced in an online post that Butler is the “leader of the nation's largest organization dedicated to electing women,” although they may not know what a woman is, either, because Emily's List defines women as Democrats who support abortion rights, so now we all have to go back to biology class and figure this out.
The governor's office also said Butler “will make history as the first Black lesbian to openly serve in Congress.”
That makes Newsom the first governor to “out” whoever was the first Black lesbian to not-openly serve in Congress. And he's also the first governor to appoint a Maryland resident to be the United States senator from California.
So much leadership! After reporters noticed that Butler lives in Maryland and might be ineligible for a job that constitutionally requires residency in the state of California, Newsom's office said Butler owns a home in California and only moved to the D.C. area for the job with Emily's List.
A source provided me with the property records showing that Butler's five-bedroom home is in the View Park area of Los Angeles, near USC. It was offered for rent — the old listing can still be seen on websites such as Apartments. com, along with a notation that it's not currently available. An internet search of the address seems to indicate that somebody else is living there now.
KTLA reported that the L.A. County Registrar confirmed that Butler became a registered voter in Los Angeles County on Sunday using the online registration system. But at what home address? Although voter registration is on the “honor system,” the forms are signed under penalty of perjury. If the new U.S. senator registered to vote using the address of a home that's rented to somebody else, she's fortunate that in California, Our Democracy is protected by mail ballots going to somebody else's mailbox.
Some Democrats in California may feel that Their Democracy has been threatened by Feinstein's untimely departure. She left us before the close of the filing period for 2024. Now candidates in California have until December 8 to recalibrate their plans in light of a crucial new factor.
Sen. Laphonza Butler is very likely to run for re-election.
Newsom famously promised to appoint a Black woman to the Senate in the event that Feinstein couldn't finish her term, but more recently he declared that he wanted to be fair to the candidates who have been running campaigns to win the seat in an election. So he said his appointee would serve only as a caretaker to finish out the term and then, presumably, gracefully step aside.
Now, however, the caretaker thing is off the table. Newsom said there were no conditions on the appointment, Butler's spokesperson wouldn't rule out that she might run for reelection, and everybody has until the close of business on December 8 to pull papers to run for whatever office they choose. However, candidates can only be on the ballot for one office at a time.
Democratic Senate candidates Katie Porter, Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee will have to decide whether they really want to give up their seats in Congress to run against “the first Black lesbian to openly serve in Congress,” or if they want to change their minds and file papers to run for re-election.
If they do, current officeholders who are running for Congress hoping to win the seats held by Porter, Schiff and Lee can change their minds and pull papers to run for reelection themselves.
Newsom could have called a special election to replace Feinstein. But he's too big a fan of Democracy to do that.